Many American University students said they feel the federal government should support abstinence sex education programs provided those programs include information about contraceptives as an alternative to abstinence.
A lawsuit was dropped last week that aimed to cut federal funds for a national teen abstinence program that some said was being used for Christian proselytizing, according to CNN.com
The Silver Ring Thing, a self-described "Christ-centered" program and outgrowth of a Pittsburgh Christian ministry, has received more than $1 million in federal funds over the past three years for its abstinence programming geared toward teens, according to CNN.com.
The American Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit in May, alleging that the money was being used toward the religious aspects of the program in which participants receive a silver ring inscribed with a Bible verse and witness testimonies from group members on how Jesus has influenced their lives, according to an ACLU press release.
Senior Counsel Gary McCaleb of the Alliance Defense Fund, which represented the Silver Ring Thing, said the program has both a secular aspect and a separate voluntary religious aspect, which does not receive federal funds. According to McCaleb, the money the program received was used only for its secular portions.
In the agreement reached last week by the ACLU and the Department of Health and Human Services, the Silver Ring Thing program is free to apply for future federal grants, but certain oversight and bookkeeping measures will ensure the funds will not be used for religious advocacy, according to the ACLU.
Charu Chandrasekhar, a staff attorney of the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project, maintained that her organization did not object the Silver Ring Thing's offering religious content, but to the use of taxpayer dollars for that content.
"We're most concerned with religion bleeding into abstinence-only education," Chandrasekhar said.
Rather than relying on the federal government for its funding in the future, the Silver Ring Thing might turn instead to private donors, McCaleb said. According to AU University Chaplain Joe Eldridge, donor support would allow the program to run itself independently of government regulation.
"This is something that the Christian community should support," he said. "Government funding always involves strings. It inhibits the faith community to implement programs in the ways they deem most effective."
Joanna Ison, president of the AU chapter of the ACLU, agreed, adding that federal funding for sex education programs is permissible as long as no religion is promoted through the program.
"We need to make sure that the most effective and efficient method of sex education is being taught, and that the decision of what method is used is based on concrete facts about what works, not on religious beliefs," Ison said.
Similar sentiments came from other AU students, who said they feel the federal government should support sex education programs as long as those programs include information about contraceptives in addition to abstinence as an alternative. After teaching a sex education course to seventh graders in high school, Greg Rosenberg, a junior in the School of Communication, said he found this to be the most effective method.
"You need to present both alternatives because it's not realistic to think you will get every kid on the abstinence boat," Rosenberg said. "It's a shame to not educate them on how to protect themselves."
Liz King, a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences, said her private all-girls Catholic high school urged abstinence but presented other options as well.
"Knowledge is always better," King said. "If anyone from my school decided to have sex, no one got pregnant."
Some students, however, said they feel that abstinence-only sex education is the most effective way to prevent teen pregnancies.
"Although schools can attempt to teach the proper use of condoms and other forms of birth control, the only true way to prevent teenage pregnancy and the spread of STDs is sexual abstinence," said Ashley Erdos, a sophomore in the School of International Service.
Jason Dombrowski, a sophomore in the School of Public Affairs, was formerly on the board of an abstinence-only program in his area that was federally funded. He supports the programs, he said, because "they work."
"I've seen abstinence-only programs work first-hand," Dombrowski said. "Abstinence-only education is important because it's people-centered. It's focused on the value of every single human being. It says, 'We think you're better than just an animal.'"
The lawsuit comes on the heels of President Bush's proposal to increase federal spending on abstinence-only-until-marriage programs by $27 million in his recently released budget. According to an ACLU press release, since 1997, the federal government has spent nearly $1 billion on abstinence programs.
